Chapter Six
Silvia's property was private and expansive, though her friend used it for little else that releasing the pets she grew tired of, mostly rabbits, cats and foxes that she would rescue from the city and nurse back to health.
Runa sat in her truck for half an hour, going over the map of likely areas the gnomes might have gone to set up camp. When she had them marked on her map, she rolled it up and tucked it into her long leather jacket, stepping out and eyeing the dark woods before she went around to her trunk and got her bow and quiver, a birthday gift from her boss that provided unlimited arrows. She glanced down the road at the massive fence that separated Silvia's property from it before she entered through the gate, the doors opening for her as she approached -- as they would for only her, her sister-raid members, and their mothers -- and closed after she entered.
And then it was a long walk. She looked around for any signs of gnomes, usually marks left in the roots of trees from small axes as they gathered wood small enough for them to chop, or junk left behind when they lost interest. Gnomes usually worked as merchants of sorts for the none humanoid creatures, often trading with them while stealing their shit from under their nose, having had elves as their main trader customer since they were always desperate for more booze and to stupid to realize the gnomes were taking their things while they partied.
Once elves were domesticated, gnomes...lost their meal ticket, so to speak.
And so they were reduced to becoming a general nuance.
As she walked for hours without any sign of a gnome, and close to noon she caught whiff of something and stopped. She lifted her gaze to the sky to look over the black branches of the woods and saw smoke.
Runa's lips thinned as she let out a slow exhale.
So there was a camp around here for sure, though that wasn't a gnome trait, as they preferred things cold and damp.
Her thoughts went to it being a possible fairy, which slept a major, major pain in the ass for her sister-raid. If a fairy had decided to park their ass in Silvia's woods, it would be hell getting them out, and god fucking forbid they had family that had decided to turn into trees here.
She rolled her eyes hard and pushed forward, shaking her head.
As she neared she heard music, but it wasn't the layers of instruments and melodies that fairies played.
It was simple.
And offbeat.
Her brow knitted as she crept closer toward it, hearing voices, laughter, the light of a fire in a canyon below now visible. As she came to the edge of the trees she was able to finally see what was below and stilled at the sights she saw.
A village of wild elves!
Her eye lit up as her senses sharped, Runa become hyper aware of herself. She stayed very still, slowing her heart rate. Something was approaching and she inched away, dropping to a crouch to see a small figure coming.
